Tuberculosis is one of the ancient diseases known to man. It has claimed as its victims, all levels of men and women irrespective of the person being a prince, pauper, poet and statesman, from time immemorial. The tubercle bacillus has shown its endurance and ability to humble the mightiest and the nobility to dust, besides the uncounted millions of commoners. Today, while scientific advances have produced the most powerful drugs to kill the tubercle bacillus, this enduring scourge continues to claim about half a million lives every year in India alone. Moreover, M. tuberculosis is ready for its next wave of devastation, egged on by the new scourge of the twentieth century, the HIV infection.

Yet what holds us back from the ultimate conquest of tuberculosis, is very simple, yet most complex, the lack of systematic application of scientific advances to practice.

Towards bridging this gap, the National TB Institute was established at Bangalore by Govt. of India in 1959, to study the operational aspects of epidemiology, diagnosis, prevention and treatment so that the problem of TB could be tackled by a comprehensive, scientifically designed National TB Control Programme, in tune with the primary health care delivery system, the changing needs and resources and community health behaviour. National TB Institute has carried out extensive research on Epidemiology, Sociological aspects of TB, Bacteriology and other operational areas including Treatment aspects & Health Education, S-ray & BCG applications. The National TB Programme, over the past 35 years has been contributing to the relief of suffering population in the country.

The summaries of research studies carried out at NTI have earlier been published in two volumes viz., Vol. I brought out in 1976 and Vol. II in 1977. It was felt that update of these volumes is necessary keeping in view, the fact that about 19 years have passed since their publication. Hence, this attempt is made to update the summaries of studies carried out by the Institute. This volume summaries all research reports, some reviews and conceptual articles. It is hoped that this will be of use to Programme Officers, Researches, Non Governmental Organisations and Teachers engaged in the struggle against tuberculosis, towards achieving the goal of tuberculosis control in India.